People v. Mendiola

526 N.E.2d 172, 171 Ill. App. 3d 936, 122 Ill. Dec. 32, 1988 Ill. App. LEXIS 882
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 17, 1988
DocketNo. 85-3456
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 526 N.E.2d 172 (People v. Mendiola) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Mendiola, 526 N.E.2d 172, 171 Ill. App. 3d 936, 122 Ill. Dec. 32, 1988 Ill. App. LEXIS 882 (Ill. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinions

JUSTICE PINGHAM

delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a jury trial, defendant, Juan Mendiola, was convicted of murder and sentenced to a prison term of 33 years. The sole issue at trial was the authenticity of the identification of the defendant as the driver of the car from which the unknown passenger shot and killed Anthony Krause. On appeal, defendant contends for reversal that the evidence failed to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that he was the offender, that prejudicial and inadmissible hearsay statements were admitted into evidence and that defendant was irreparably prejudiced by prosecutorial misconduct.

The trial evidence revealed the following: On October 19, 1984, at approximately 2:40 a.m. near West 24th and South Washtenaw Streets in Chicago, the victim, Anthony Krause, Jack Collier, Alexander Damaio and Leo Fay were walking from a block party. Krause and Collier stepped into an alley to urinate. Damaio and Fay waited a short distance from the alley. Collier noticed a car with two men inside traveling along West 25th Street. The car slowed down as it approached Fay and Damaio. When the car reached Krause and Collier it came to a complete stop. The passenger in the car leaned over the driver, pointed a rifle out the driver’s window and fired a shot. The bullet hit Krause in the forehead and killed him. The car sped away.

Collier testified that he and Krause, along with Damaio and Fay, were at a block party on the night of the shooting. Collier testified that at the block party he drank beer and smoked marijuana, but that he did not use any of the THC (Tetrahydocannobinol), an illegal drug, or the other drugs that were available at the block party. Collier stated that Damaio and Fay ingested THC.

Collier testified that he, Krause, Damaio and Fay walked on 24th Street and Collier stopped in an alley to show Krause something that had been written about him on a building. Collier testified that he was leaning against a building and the victim was urinating when Collier noticed a slowly approaching car. Fay yelled, “Look out!” just as the car stopped about 15 feet away from Collier and Krause. The driver of the car looked at Collier and Krause, then looked at the passenger, smiled and nodded yes. The driver of the car then leaned back so that the passenger could lean across him and point a rifle out the car window at Krause. Collier stated that he stepped closer to the car and noticed the trigger of the gun. Collier further testified that when he moved away from the car, the passenger fired a shot which struck Krause in the forehead. The car then sped away.

At trial, Collier made an in-court identification of the defendant Juan Mendiola as the person who was the driver of the car. Collier described the passenger, the shooter, to the jury as a blond, white male. Collier testified that he knew defendant, that the defendant was a member of a street gang which was an enemy of Collier’s street gang, that he had known the defendant for five years before the shooting and that he recognized the defendant when the shooting occurred. Collier also identified a photograph of the defendant’s car and testified that he recognized it as the car from which the fatal shot was fired.

Collier testified that he was questioned by the police at the hospital to which the victim was taken about the identification of the shooter and of the car in which the shooter was riding. He did not then identify either the defendant or the car. Collier testified that he lied to the police when he stated that he did not recognize either the driver of the car or the car. He asserted, however, that he then gave the police an accurate, though limited, description of the driver. Collier testified that he told the police officer who interviewed him that the driver of the car was a white Latin male with straight black hair. Collier also testified that he gave the police officer a fabricated description of the car. He told the officer, immediately after the shooting, that the car used in the killing was a red Chevrolet Chevette, a compact car. At trial, however, defendant’s car was shown to be a brown Oldsmobile Ninety-eight, a full-sized car.

Collier testified that he was a member of a gang which was a rival of the gang to which defendant belonged. Collier admitted that gang members lie and knowingly and falsely accuse rival gang members of committing offenses out of revenge and to protect fellow gang members as well. Collier stated that he lied to the police officer who questioned him because he was afraid to tell the officer the truth and because his mother told him not to identify the defendant. Collier conceded, however, that he did not talk to his mother until after the police had questioned him at the scene of the shooting and at the hospital.

Nine days after the shooting, Collier viewed a lineup in which the defendant was a participant. Collier admitted that when he first viewed this lineup he told the police that he did not recognize anyone in the lineup. Shortly after Collier had viewed this lineup, the police took Collier to an interview room where Damaio and Fay were waiting. Collier testified that Damaio told him that he, Damaio, had identified defendant in the lineup as the driver of the car from which Krause was shot. Collier testified that he thereupon left the interview room and went to tell the police officers that defendant was the driver of the car. Collier stated that he identified the only person in the lineup who was referred to by the nickname “Ricco” in the interview room. Detective Lahm, who conducted the lineup, testified that when Collier came out of the interview room he identified the driver of the car as “Ricco.”

Collier denied that he told an acquaintance, Jessie Rosardo, that when Krause was shot he, Collier, was urinating in the alley and that only when he heard the rifle shot did he exit the alley and find Krause lying on the ground. When Rosardo testified later as a State’s witness, however, he related that Collier had made these statements to him.

Alexander Damaio, a witness for the State, testified that immediately prior to the shooting he stopped to converse with Fay while Collier and Krause went into the alley to urinate. Fay had his back to the wall, and Damaio, who was facing Fay, had his back to the street. Fay warned Damaio to look out for an approaching car. Damaio turned around, looked at the car for a second or a half second, and then turned away, according to Damaio’s testimony.

Later, Damaio testified, he was shown the defendant’s family car in the auto pound. Damaio testified that he could not tell the make of the car. Damaio said that he told the police that from a side view of the car he thought it was the car used in the shooting, but that he could not be positive. He testified that he remembered only that the car was big and dark and had opera lights.

Damaio testified that even though it was after midnight when the shooting occurred he was wearing sunglasses. He further stated that he smoked marijuana, drank beer and snorted THC through his nose at the block party. Damaio testified that his vision was distorted because he had used drugs. At the time of the trial, Damaio was on probation for possession of a controlled substance.

Leo Fay testified on behalf of the State.

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Related

People v. Thomas
633 N.E.2d 839 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1994)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
526 N.E.2d 172, 171 Ill. App. 3d 936, 122 Ill. Dec. 32, 1988 Ill. App. LEXIS 882, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-mendiola-illappct-1988.